Speakers announced for leadership conference

CHARLESTON -- The West Virginia Roundtable's leadership conference, Developing West Virginia's Future Leaders: A Look at the Four Generations at Work, will take place at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown on April 22-23.

Called an "annual school for leaders," conference presentations will focus on insights with practical applications for West Virginia's leaders.

Cam Marston, author of the book Motivating the "What's in it for Me?" Workforce, will deliver the keynote address focusing on the generational workforce. Marston, founder and president of Generational Insight, has spent years studying the traits of the young and mature workforce to discover what makes each generation tick. He will also lead a roundtable discussion specifically designed to yield best practices and working recommendations for how we can better recruit and retain young talent in West Virginia.

Marston's insight has been shared through worldwide news channels and publications including: Good Morning America, BBC, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer, New Zealand Herald, Entrepreneur Magazine, Business Week, Fortune Small Business (FSB), Money Magazine, HR Management Today and Edward Lowe Report, as well as numerous trade journals and city business journals throughout the United States.

Other presenters include:

* The Honorable Gaston Caperton, a former two-term governor of West Virginia, is the eighth president of the College Board, a not-for-profit membership association that consists of 5,000 of the nation's leading schools, colleges, and universities.

As the state's 31st governor, Caperton brought West Virginia back from the brink of bankruptcy with more than $500 million in debts, and transformed it into a state that could boast of a $100 million surplus. Under his leadership, West Virginia's unemployment rate dropped from 9.8 percent to a low of 6.2 percent. This was accomplished by creating more than 86,000 jobs. The sound financial management approach that he initiated led Financial World magazine to call West Virginia the most improved state in the nation.

Upon leaving the statehouse, Caperton spent the spring of 1997 teaching as a fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University. He then taught at Columbia University, where he founded and managed the Institute on Education and Government.

* Michael S. Garrison, president of West Virginia University, is a respected public servant and immediate past chair of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission. Garrison, 39, was elected to the WVU presidency in 2007, by members of the WVU Board of Governors, with the consent of the Higher Education Policy Commission.

Garrison is committed to the institution's key missions-changing lives and providing opportunities to all through education; building knowledge through research; and serving the people of West Virginia through economic development and health care.

Garrison was managing member of the Morgantown law office of Spilman Thomas & Battle PLLC. Prior to joining the Charleston-based law firm in 2003, he served as former Governor Bob Wise's chief of staff and as cabinet secretary in the state Department of Tax and Revenue.

* The Honorable Luke Ravenstahl became the 59th Mayor of the City of Pittsburgh in 2006. The 27-year-old Pittsburgh native – who holds the distinction of being the youngest mayor of any major U.S. city – took office upon the death of Mayor Bob O'Connor. Mayor Ravenstahl's ascent to the top of Pittsburgh government began less than three years earlier when he became the youngest member ever elected to Pittsburgh City Council. Just two years later, his colleagues unanimously voted him Council President. In the May 2007 primary election, the people of Pittsburgh displayed their confidence in Mayor Ravenstahl's leadership by electing him by the largest percentage of votes in the City's 250-year history.

In addition, a cross-generational panel of West Virginia leaders, including Charlie Ryan, B. Keith Fulton, Lisa Marsh, and Paul Daugherty, will engage in a facilitated conversation based on their experiences and the perceptions surrounding the generation that they represent.

For more information about the West Virginia Leadership Conference or to register, visit www.wvleadershipconference.org